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Le Mars police say father killed three family members, shot himself

May 11, 2006 By

Le Mars police have released more details of a murder-suicide that left four members of a family dead. Police Chief Stuart Dekkenga says they got a call from a neighbor last night who was concerned after 37-year-old Marilyn Hayden did not show up for work at Wells Dairy.

Dekkenga says Marilyn Hayden’s husband, 38-year-old Timothy Hayden, has been identified as the person who shot his 15-year-old daughter Lyndsey, 17-year-old son Shawn and Marilyn Hayden. Police say a note was found at the residence written by Timothy Hayden, who they say took his own life after shooting his family. They are not releasing the contents of the note.

Police say they had to force their way way into the home as all the enterances were blocked. Police are asking that anyone with information to call their office.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Harkin calls for more ethanol use

May 11, 2006 By

Saying gasoline prices have nearly doubled since President Bush took office, Iowa Democrat Senator Tom Harkin today (Thursday) proposed legislation he says will help wean American drivers off foreign oil and boost market for corn-based ethanol. Harkin says the first of three parts to the bill focuses on putting much more ethanol on the market.

Harkin says his bill would dramatically raise the renewable fuels standard, requiring the nation to blend ten-billion gallons of ethanol annually by the year 2010, 30-billion gallons by 2020 and 60-billion gallons a year by 2030. By comparison, the U.S. currently has the capacity to blend about four-and-a-half billion gallons a year. Harkin says his bill also calls for raising the number of gas stations across the U.S. that can pump E-85, a blend of 85-percent ethanol and 15-percent gasoline.

Harkin says major oil companies would be required to increase the number of stations with E-85 pumps by five-percent every year, meaning, half of all stations branded by the big oil companies would have to pump E-85 within a decade. The bill proposes a series of tax breaks for independent gas stations that put in E-85 pumps too.

Only certain vehicles can run on E-85 and Harkin’s bill would see that more of those vehicles are produced and available for consumers to buy. He say automakers would be required to increase production of flex-fuel vehicles, which can run on gas or E-85, raising production ten-percent a year until nearly all vehicles sold in the U.S. are flex-fuel-capable.

Harkin says “Americans now know all too well how painful our dangerous and costly addiction to foreign oil is. With soaring fuel prices, we must take a much more aggressive approach to boosting home grown biofuels.”

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

I-S-U student looks for link between obesity and hormones

May 11, 2006 By

An Iowa State University grad student is engaged in research that may find a link between obesity and hormones that stimulate appetite. Michelle Bohan of LeMars, a graduate student in biochemistry, is working with three I-S-U professors on the project. “Some people may need to modify their diet — add a little bit more protein, maybe decrease the amount of carbohydrates to achieve (maximum) health,” Bohan says.

She’s measured the “body mass index” of eight men and eight women. The 16 study participants ate one of two diets — the Atkins Diet that’s heavy in proteins and an American Heart Association diet which is more balanced.

Bohan is tracking the hormone levels of participants. For example, she has discovered overweight women do not have as much of a hormone that reduces insulin resistance as lean women, and it’s a hormone she says you want a lot of so you can avoid contracting diabetes. She’s looking at the kinds of foods which increase and decrease the levels of this hormone in the body.

Bohan hopes the research will eventually give obese people more options. “If you could control things through your diet, would you try that first before taking more extreme measures (like) surgery (or) by taking shots every day?” Bohan asks. Bohan presented some of her initial research results last month at a scientific meeting in San Francisco. Her research is being financed by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine Tagged With: ,

Truck rolls off Mississippi bridge. closes it down

May 11, 2006 By

Crews are hoping to get a Mississippi River bridge back open by noon today after a semi crashed through the guardrails last night. The accident happened just before 9:30 last night at the Savana/Sabula bridge. The driver of the semi, 45-year-old Abram Blatz of Morris, Manitoba, Canada was northbound on the causeway when he reached for an item in his cab and lost control.

The semi rolled two to three times, landing on its top with the cab hanging off the bridge and partially submerged in the river. The trailer blocked Highway 64. Emergency crews rescued Blatz by boat and took him to a Clinton hospital.

There was 100-thousand dollar damage to the truck. He also lost about 20 tons of peat moss, valued at 50-thousand dollars and there was a 100 foot section of guardrail that was damage. The D-N-R and HAZMAT crews worked to contain a small amount of diesel fuel that spilled into the river. A crane was used to lift the truck out of the river.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Marshalltown Community College baseball coach stepping down

May 11, 2006 By

After seven years at the helm Kevin Benzing is stepping down as the head baseball coach at Marshalltown Community College. Benzing re-started the baseball program at the school and the Tigers take a 9-31 record into the region tournament later this week.

Benzing says he wants to dedicate more time to his family, as he says trying to be a father, teaching and coaching took too much of his time. Benzing says his 2005 team will be one of his top memories. He says they were 33-23 and got votes in the top 25.

Benzing says he will always remember his first team after getting the program going. He says they had four players that went on to play professionally and two who’re still playing in the pros.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With:

Disease lab dumping raises questions in Ames

May 11, 2006 By

An investigation’s beginning into whether the National Animal Disease Lab in Ames dumped material from animal autopsies into the city sewage treatment system in Ames. The federal Environmental Protection Agency confirms the city of Ames has called the regional E-P-A office in Kansas City asking for advice.

E-P-A spokesman Martin Kessler says the city’s trying to determine just how long the lab’s been discharging fluid from its operations into the city’s water treatment system. The lab on the north side of Ames takes in animals suspected of having ailments including foot and mouth disease and B-S-E, and does testing on them. Some material from the bodies of animals with Mad Cow contains prions, proteins that are thought to transmit the disease.

Kessler says the E-P-A’s been told the lab was bleaching the waste, but that process doesn’t kill prions. The lab’s been advised to incinerate its animal waste, and a city engineer says there doesn’t seem to be any imminent threat, but an investigation is underway.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Health & Medicine, Politics & Government

U-of-I to require sexual harrassment training

May 11, 2006 By

The University of Iowa will require its administrators and new students to take training on sexual-harassment and violence policies. Professor Salome Raheim says the students will take an on-line course. It’s called “Alcohol E-D-U,” and the purpose of the course is to teach students more about the negative side-effects of alcohol, particularly the relationship between drinking and sexual violence, and the way alcohol figures into the inability to give consent.

She says the University of Iowa’s not alone in using the Alcohol-E-D-U course to address the issue by educating students. She says the mandatory training that both students and administrators will take is part of a broader strategy the University of Iowa’s using to create a more welcoming, inclusive and just community.

Administrators will get training in what sexual harassment is, how to watch out for it in offices and among students, and what their responsibility is to respond to it.
“We’re tackling the same thing with two different strategies.” Professor Raheim says the intention is not to try and make everybody perfect. “No, we’re not, ” she says, but having expectations and policies about appropriate behavior in the college community will make it possible to let people know about the expectations and consequences, and then hold them to the expectations.

The new policy arose from a pair of reports, one finding discrimination still exists on campus, the other concluding that there’s bad behavior among students, faculty and staff ranging from instances of discourtesy and “incivility,” to abuse and violence. The president’s announcement even said some of the responses to the story about pink locker rooms in Kinnick Stadium showed examples of discriminatory, abusive, and disrespectful behavior” from the campus.

Filed Under: Education Tagged With:
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